May 24, 2010

Julieanne Kost demoing CS5 this Thursday in DC

This Thursday (May 27) the Washington DC chapter of ASMP is hosting a talk from Adobe evangelist Julieanne Kost. According to the Web site, the event will feature a giveaway of one copy of Photoshop CS5, plus Julieanne demonstrating the following improvements:

• New selection technologies and tools
• Content-Aware Fill
• New tools for HDR imaging with HDR Pro
• Automated correction of lens distortion in Adobe Camera Raw 6
• Improved raw conversions, noise removal, additive grain in Adobe Camera Raw 6
• Puppet Warp – Transform on steroids
• New brush engine for a natural media look with Mixer Brush and Bristle tips
• Integrated Lab B&W action for an easy and interactive way to convert color images
• Accelerated workflow with GPU-enabled cropping and new, integrated Adobe® Mini Bridge panel
• Improved integration with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® and much more

PS–So take that, folks who complain that I never blog about East Coast Photoshop events. ;-)

Tools to unlock Photoshop’s new painting chops

The new painting features in Photoshop CS5 are incredibly powerful, but the app interface doesn’t provide much guidance as to what to use & when. Fortunately some painting experts have stepped up to the challenge.
Adobe’s Russell Brown has used Configurator to create a Painting Assistant panel that steps you through common tasks in converting a photograph into a painting. Here are a demo video and the panel installer.
Meanwhile painter John Derry is offering an excellent set of Artists’ Brushes, together with a texture library & six video tutorials, for $19.95. Maybe the idea of paying for content seems weird, but this is really well crafted, well vetted material that can make a big difference in what you’re able to accomplish with the tools. Check out the preview video for a sample of the tools & the techniques John shows.